Neat! It's a monkfish laying on it's back, so that you see the underside. Very nice specimen.

Whoops. The jaw had me a bit baffled. Most critters in the monkfish grouping don't have such and elongated jaw... so I searched around some. It could be something in the Rhinobatidae Family (guitarfish, shovelnosed shark)

No matter which, it's a nice specimen!

Wow.
Wierd.
With things like that floating around, no wonder I'm a vegetarian.
Anywhoo, when I was a kid, I used to go fishing with my grandfather down in Florida.
We used to catch small stingray-like fish called "skates".
When you turned them over (to look at their underside), they had big black eyes and an almost human looking mouth.
It turns out (much to my suprise at the time) that you could tickle a skate (by rubbing their belly with your finger) and they would laugh.
Seriously, no joke.
The "laughing" sound they made (not laughing like a person, keep in mind) was usually followed by them smiling. (again, seriously, no joke).
So if anyone ever asks you if you can "tickle a skate", you can just turn to them and say "yes".

are you serious Wu Kung???? what is the laughing sound like

Believe it or not, it kind of sounds like an asthmatic child.
But the real wierd thing is, is that it smiles while you tickle it.
So we would catch one, tickle it for a minute or so, then let it go back in the water.
We would do this all afternoon.
Once we caught one and tickled it, we would always catch more afterwards, almost like it told the other skates in the area where they could get "tickled".

Originally posted by wu kung
Believe it or not, it kind of sounds like an asthmatic child.
But the real wierd thing is, is that it smiles while you tickle it.
So we would catch one, tickle it for a minute or so, then let it go back in the water.
We would do this all afternoon.
Once we caught one and tickled it, we would always catch more afterwards, almost like it told the other skates in the area where they could get "tickled".

I would imagine the laughing sound you are hearing is the skate trying to get oxygen (which it can't out of water) or going into some type of shock. Whatever it may be, I seriously doubt that the skate is enjoying itself.

As much as you get a kick out of it, It is probably torturous to the fish. Of course you most likely aren't aware of this as you don't sound like the type to torture something for fun.

it is a skate and the sound is the skate trying to "breath"

sea robins, aka "croakers" do this.

sand sharks, aka "dogfish" do this as well.


the skate in the vid seems to have curled up the "wings" probably as a result of being out of water and dried up.

Listen, I know what you're saying.
Believe me.
But I also know what I saw.
And, believe it when I say that I'm not the only one who knows this.
I would never do anything to intentionally hurt ANY animal.
So in all seriousness, don't say I'm cruel (I mean you can say anything you want, it's a free country {for now}) but, if you're a meat eater, don't turn around and spit that ridiculous venom at me and then turn around and eat a steak (or whatever).
So just lighten up, okay.(?)

Also, to jbondo:
Listen, you don't even know anything about me and to try and sum up my entire existence from the above statement actually says a lot about you.
You shouldn't say I'm cruel (I mean, you can say whatever you want, it's a free country {for now}).
I don't even know who the hell you are.
I'm not going to go on a tyraid here about how I'm a vegan, an animal lover (who helps rescue homeless animals), how I donate to charity (blah blah blah; even though it's true).
So until you really know someone, you might want to shut the hell up lest you show other people that you really don't know much of anything.
Ya dig?

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I was six years old when I last tickled a skate.
Some twenty-two plus years ago?
How many incredibly smart things did you do when you were six?

[edit on 31-5-2006 by wu kung]

[edit on 31-5-2006 by wu kung]

[edit on 31-5-2006 by wu kung]

Originally posted by jbondo
As much as you get a kick out of it, It is probably torturous to the fish. Of course you most likely aren't aware of this as you don't sound like the type to torture something for fun.

He said you aren't the type who torturres things, so don't get so intense.

Oooooooooohhhhh.
Oh yeah,
(heh) yeah, you're right.
Sorry about that.
I guess I really wasn't paying attention.

I formally retract my (un-necessarily) intense (and more than likely insulting) statement.
Sometimes when I read too fast, I miss the really important things:lol
I have no excuse for my stupidity.
I formally appologize.
Jeepers, that made me look pretty dumb, huh?
(probably too much sugary cereal and tv screwing up my brain).
(I think maybe that I need glasses)
Carry on...

I learned something a long time ago at another board. It's called RMPL (Read More Post Less). This taught me to never skim thru a post unless you don't plan on responding. Another one I learned is not to 'spin'. Once you start spinning then don't expect others to not spin your posts too. Name calling can come back to bite you as well.

Anyway, I knew you didn't catch my last line and maybe having a bad day. If I said I never did it myself, I'd be lying. Some days you just have to blow off steam and what better way than on an internet stranger.

I'm not specifically talking about wu tung thru-out this post. Just saw an opportunity to give a quick lesson on some things I've learned and took it. Use it or don't peeps.

Now this is for wu tung. You give more away about yourself than you think, just in your writing style. Even though you can be hot headed, I could tell you were a good hearted person from your earlier posts. It shows thru quite plainly. Let me guess, you are a very busy person with allot going on all the time. You try to do things as efficiently as possible and don't sleep as often as you should. In fact you don't care to sleep too much as you may miss out on something. You have a goofy sense of humor and when you get tired you tend to get a bit wacky and laugh allot. How am I doing so far? Now I'll try something more obscure. Some of your favorite people are Alicia Silverstone and Alice Walker. For some reason Gwyneth Paltrow comes to mind also. Oh well, maybe not.

Herm... there's nothing too curious about this.
This is another 'fish with a human face'. Personally I think it looks a bit....

[object width="425" height="350">[embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5vcOSECfdmU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">

[edit on 25-01-2004 by Gear]

They make Jack sad...

Creepy

That was a freakin' wierd fish!

Now this goes specifically to jbondo:

Not too far off, you were about 50/50.
Although you were way off on the alicia (what's-her-name) thing and the gwenyth (the other chick) thing.
I don't even know who alice walker is.
But I'm definitely goofy (like you couldn't tell).
But I just wanted to take this opportunity to formally appologize to you and, about the blowing off steam thing, you pretty much hit the nail on the g-spot (can I say that? g-spot?)
Well anywhoo, I actually read the post, but I think I'm dislexyc(sp?); or maybe I'm just an idiot..?
By the way, who is alice walker?

Anyway, damn freaky fish!!

thats a freaky fish wouldnt want to come across it personally id get freaked out and try and whack it lol.

im a wimp lol

Originally posted by wu kung
That was a freakin' wierd fish!

Now this goes specifically to jbondo:

Not too far off, you were about 50/50.
Although you were way off on the alicia (what's-her-name) thing and the gwenyth (the other chick) thing.
I don't even know who alice walker is.
But I'm definitely goofy (like you couldn't tell).
But I just wanted to take this opportunity to formally appologize to you and, about the blowing off steam thing, you pretty much hit the nail on the g-spot (can I say that? g-spot?)
Well anywhoo, I actually read the post, but I think I'm dislexyc(sp?); or maybe I'm just an idiot..?
By the way, who is alice walker?

Anyway, damn freaky fish!!

I was just kidding on the people. I would have to be a psychic for that. Alice Walker is a writer.

Stop with the apologies! Everyone makes mistakes and yours was not that big a deal. Forgive yourself already, okie-dokie?

Looking at fish makes me want to go fishing for a nice big brown trout. I love brown trout!

what the hell kind of fish was that? anyone speak japanese? (was it japanese?)

It was Korean. I have a couple Korean friends, maybe I'll ask them if they know what it means. If I can get to them, I'll be sure to post a translation.